It could be 1984 all over again in the upcoming election. With some major Democratic candidates failing to garner "positive" ratings in excess of fifty per cent from their own party faithful, the proverbial "Reagan Democrat", typically ignored in the Democratic primary, may be the key to winning the next election. [more below]
Stan Greenberg, a long time Democratic pollster, first noted the phenomenon of the "Reagan Democrat" following the 1984 election, where white ethnic/union voters went big (66 percent) for Ronald Reagan.
Greenberg opined that "Reagan Democrats" rejected the Democratic party in favor of Republican Reagan because they felt alienated by the leftward drift of their party. Admittedly, racism and self interest played a large part in their choice, with the 1984 Democratic platform promoting programs that favored the very poor and certain special interest groups. Greenberg found "Reagan Democrats" to be focused on lower taxes and national security issues. The same factors that gave the "Reagan Democrats" such influence in 1984 may be at work again in the upcoming election.
Issues such as national security (versus a strict anti-war platform), energy independence (in the face of a Congress that has done little to promote alternate energy sources, i.e. wind farms and bio-diesel), secure borders (which are a hot button issue with union labor, who see illegals as unfair competition, and city dwellers, i.e. those citizens of Newark who saw illegal aliens commit a reprehensible execution style robbery recently) will all be strong motivating factors for tipping "Reagan Democrats" one way or the other.
When winning an election means holding your entire base, picking up a majority of independents and stealing a few votes from the other side, it would appear that a straight "progressive" platform as espoused by the majority of this community could be a risky strategy. Thus, I pose the following rhetorical question to the masses, and await my flaying:
Can a candidate who ignores "Reagan Democrats" (or more conservative/religious Dems like yours truly) to win the primary win the next general election without agreeing to a more centrist/third way platform? If so, who is that candidate?
[5:55 p.m. - Time to head out for the second job. Thanks for playing. As for the negative commenters, my voter registration card says (D), and you can't take that away from me! Good night and God Bless!]